


Piece of Cake

by NoSleepUntilVacation



Series: Papyton Week 2020 [5]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Baking, Birthday, Birthday Cake, Cute, Friendship/Love, M/M, Minor Alphys/Undyne (Undertale), Undyne is a wrestler
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:35:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26202763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoSleepUntilVacation/pseuds/NoSleepUntilVacation
Summary: Mettaton and Papyrus do a favor for a friend, and learn some things about one another.Written for day five of Papyton Week, using the prompt "birthday".
Relationships: Mettaton/Papyrus (Undertale)
Series: Papyton Week 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1655671
Comments: 3
Kudos: 19
Collections: Papyton Fics





	Piece of Cake

**Author's Note:**

> This IRL stuff hasn't exactly been a trip to the local theme park (I haven't gotten sick, but I'm afraid of what might happen if I do; being immunocompromised during a pandemic is not fun!) so trust me, I'm trying to get my motivation back.
> 
> Anyway, Papyton Week (all week, every week).

_"Oh my god! What is she even made of?"_

As the commentators for the onscreen wrestling match expressed their incredulity at said wrestler's resilience, Papyrus sat on the couch and watched with wide eye sockets.

Of course, having seen this match before, he already knew the outcome of said match - the wrestler in question would lose, despite putting up a good fight. But given that "she" was none other than Papyrus' good friend Undyne, and that this was her first onscreen match, this would always be special, no matter how many more times she appeared in the federation's programming.

Undyne had assured him that this was perfectly normal; as a new wrestler, she'd be expected to lose some matches while the federation tested her willingness to learn and work with their other wrestlers. Papyrus couldn't argue with that, figuring that the Royal Guard must have worked in a similar way back underground. One couldn't just walk in and expect to become an elite member right away.

And yet, going by the way she conducted herself in this match alone, Papyrus would have been honestly surprised if Undyne didn't get very far in the federation.

As Papyrus watched Undyne and her opponent get into another stand-off, he heard the familiar clacking of high heels as their owner entered the living room.

"The cakes still need a little more time to chill, but it won't be long now, darling."

"Right!" Papyrus gave Mettaton a nod, and wrapped an arm around him as he took a seat next to Papyrus on the couch.

Undyne's birthday was almost here, and since this was her first birthday since becoming a full-fledged wrestler, Papyrus and Mettaton decided to make her a cake shaped like a wrestling ring for her party, with cake pops on the side. (In case it wasn't enough to feed everyone, Toriel and her close friend QC would also contribute a couple of pies - Toriel would bring her world-famous butterscotch-cinnamon pie, and QC would bring a key lime pie, which was on the fast track to becoming one of Undyne's favorite desserts ever.) The baking part was over, but they still needed to worry about decorating the cake; despite this just being for a friend's party and not for a professional cooking show, Mettaton still thought Undyne deserved as top-quality of a cake as possible. Plus, some of Undyne's new friends from the wrestling industry would be at the party, and neither he nor Papyrus wanted to make her look like a joke with a poorly-made cake.

Thus, while waiting for the cakes to chill, the two had decided to pass the time with some relevant videos. Some of them had Undyne and Alphys playing some wrestling video games while Undyne explained different things about the history of wrestling, including names to know and moves to watch out for. Others included the music videos for different songs relevant to the industry, particularly songs used as wrestlers' entrance themes or performed live at special events; this also included a few songs that Undyne would exercise to, and would be open to using as entrance music someday (even if just at said special events). And, of course, now that Undyne herself had started appearing in matches, watching those would be a given.

"She's really going to be a star someday..." Of course, Mettaton knew that she was already a star to many monsters; while she didn't rule monsterkind stage and screen like he did, her dedication to her people had cemented her as a hero to many monsters. Even after they all made it to the surface, Undyne still wanted to help people; she'd worked as a lifeguard until finishing her wrestling training, and still took on the job in her off-time whenever a local place needed one.

Papyrus thought about Mettaton's words as Undyne got up from another attempted pin by her opponent. Thanks to the group's hobbies and connections with one another, Mettaton's observation definitely held weight.

"I think a lot of people will really like her!" He bounced in his seat a little, remembering some of the fun things they'd done. "They like seeing her on some of our gaming livestreams. Sometimes I see people in the chat asking if she's going to be in the next episodes!"

"Oh yes, it's always lovely to hear speculation from fans."

As Mettaton spoke, though, Papyrus could feel him tense up. This occasionally happened whenever the thought of sharing the spotlight came up, and thanks to discussions that had happened over the course of their relationship, Papyrus knew why it made him so tense.

He held him a little tighter as he whispered to him. "You've gotten a lot better about this, Metta. I told you you could be a better person if you tried - and look, it's working!"

"I know, my darling." Mettaton sighed. "It just hurts to think about how many people I hurt to become famous, and that I was so close to hurting many more... to this day, I'm still scared that Blooky and Shyren think they might be holding me back. To say nothing of what I might have done to Bryan..." Finding out your idol was so scared of you stealing his fame that he thought you only deserved to work in food service, and would treat you like a walking joke - embarrassing nicknames, humiliating costumes, and entire denigrating music albums galore - would blow a hole in anyone's self-confidence, let alone that of an older teenager who already felt ground down by life. At this rate, despite Mettaton apologizing and taking steps to treat him better when he saw him (since Bryan no longer worked for him), it would probably be years before Bryan would even consider being Mettaton's friend - and Mettaton didn't blame him. (As far as Mettaton was concerned, the fact that Bryan could still tolerate him at all was a miracle.)

Papyrus stroked Mettaton's hair as he thought about his words. He knew from all the time he'd spent with him that Mettaton had insecurities - and that his preferred method of coping with them was to ignore them whenever possible. Although Papyrus used to cope with his own insecurities by copying his role models, he'd since learned that it felt a lot better to talk about his feelings - even if just to himself.

He watched Undyne and her opponent grapple on screen, and another thought came to him.

"Oh! What if being good is like a wrestling match?"

"Hmm?" Mettaton gave him an intrigued look.

"There are times when you want to be good, but there's a part of you that wants to do hurtful things, so it's like you're fighting with yourself. Even when it has you in a hold" - he gestured to the screen, where Undyne's opponent had indeed just put her in a hold - "you can still fight against it and stop yourself from doing something wrong. It doesn't always work perfectly, but as long as you try to be good, you can be a good person."

"You have a good point, sweetie." Mettaton knew that, despite all his wishes, he couldn't change the past. However, thanks to Papyrus, Frisk, and friends, he'd realized more than ever that that didn't mean he had to let his mistakes define him. This didn't mean he was going to run away from them, either; he'd instead make a solid effort to not let himself fall back into the same old habits. It wouldn't be easy, but knowing that he had support from many people definitely went a long way.

As the two cuddled together and watched the rest of the match, Mettaton thought about his and Papyrus' little circle of friends and family. Many of them had gotten decent followings on the internet for various reasons, from Sans doing playthroughs of various video games, to Alphys and Mad Mew Mew debating which season of _Mew Mew Kissy Cutie_ was better. Even Toriel had made some baking videos, which not only received good comments, but also had a few guest appearances now and then; QC, Gerson, Grillby, and even Mettaton himself had made guest appearances on her videos.

Finally, Undyne's opponent pinned her for the three-count, and even as the announcer, cheering crowd, and music blared through the arena, Undyne still let out a somewhat-audible "This isn't over, punk!" as she got up before walking away.

With the video ending soon after, Papyrus and Mettaton both found themselves wondering what kinds of things Undyne would do in this new stage of her career - and in this new year of her life.

Speaking of that...

"Well, darling, shall we check on the cake?"

"All right!"

They went into the kitchen where Mettaton checked on the wrapped cake layers. He set a hand on the plastic and noticed that the pastry wrapped inside had definitely cooled down.

"Well, these seem chilled enough. Ready for the next phase?"

Papyrus grinned and nodded. "I'll get the aprons!"

He went over to where they kept the aprons and grabbed a random one before throwing it towards Mettaton; this apron, an official piece of _Cooking with a Killer Robot_ merchandise, read "Pass the ~~computer~~ chocolate chips". Papyrus, meanwhile, retrieved a custom apron that Mettaton had made him one Christmas, reading "Cool dude, warm stove".

And so, after suiting up and getting out some supplies, the two unwrapped the cake rounds and went to work. The first order of business involved leveling the cakes and cutting them to be square-shaped to match a typical wrestling ring.

"Is this why they call it the squared circle?" Papyrus asked.

"Probably." Mettaton let his mind slip partially into a daydream. "I wonder if my rectangular body would make a great design for a wrestling ring."

"Well, you have those face steaks, so anything is possible!"

"Good point."

After cutting the cakes to the correct size and putting the scraps in a bowl, they began putting the initial layers of frosting on the cake, stacking the cake layers before applying a crumb coat to the whole thing and putting it back in the fridge to chill some more.

Mettaton closed the fridge door with a laugh. "Well, darling, now it's time to hurry up and wait again!"

Papyrus groaned. "It seems like we just got started!"

"I know; making baked desserts tends to be that way sometimes." Mettaton smiled at him. "We can start on the cake pops in the meantime."

"You had me at cake pops."

Papyrus went to retrieve a mixing spatula from a drawer as Mettaton began to crumble the cake scraps.

"Unfortunately, darling, we'll have to chill these too after we make them into balls."

"That's all right!" Papyrus grabbed the spatula and closed the drawer. "Only the best for Undyne! Besides, while we wait, I can show you some cool dance moves I came up with for the party."

"Ooh! I'm always up for hearing about dance moves."

Once the cake was sufficiently crumbled, Mettaton began to pour the frosting in with it while Papyrus started mixing. Papyrus hummed an upbeat song to himself as he stirred everything together.

 _He really seems to like that song_ , Mettaton thought; this was far from the first time he'd heard Papyrus singing it. One time, Mettaton had asked about the song, and Papyrus had said, "The title always makes me laugh!"

Not that Mettaton was complaining, of course - nothing wrong with seeing his darling having fun.

Once everything was incorporated, the two started rolling the mixture into balls and placing them on a cookie sheet.

"Hmm..." Mettaton stared at a ball after forming it. "Has anyone ever made these without sticks, and sold them like that?"

"Maybe! I've heard of people doing something like that with cookie dough!" Papyrus grabbed some more batter. "And there are also donut holes, which aren't the same, but are kind of similar?"

"Oh yes, donut holes." He tapped his high heel on the ground. "I don't know how I would compete with QC and Muffet, though. People love QC's homemade recipes, and if it weren't for her, Muffet would have a monopoly on the market for monster pastries."

Papyrus thought for a second, and then, continuing on the theme of m's, put forth an idea. "Maybe monsters might enjoy a mixture of many more MTT-Brand miniature - or massive - morsels in the market, Mettaton."

At first, when Mettaton didn't reply, Papyrus stumbled on his words a little. "I mean, when Halloween comes around and Muffet's especially busy--"

But then Mettaton leaned on the counter and let out a cheerful laugh for a second before turning towards Papyrus.

"What would I do without you, sugar skull?"

Papyrus had some giggles of his own as Mettaton kissed his head.

Finally, once they'd finished rolling and placing the balls, they returned the cake pops to the fridge and cleaned everything up. They would still have more work to do later on, but now was a good time for another break; they still had a day before Undyne's party, after all.

In the middle of drying off his hands, Mettaton remembered something. "So, what were you saying about your dance moves, darling?"

"Oh! Let's go into the living room and I can show you!"

As the two ran off into the living room, having to wait between phases of decorating the cake didn't seem like such a slog after all.

* * *

That evening and the next day, the two got to decorating the cake, and when it was time, they transported it to Undyne's party without a hitch. As planned, it looked like a wrestling ring, with licorice ropes and four of the cake pops attached to the turnbuckles. The rest of the cake pops on the side depicted various wrestling-themed imagery, such as the logo for the federation Undyne joined, and a championship belt that had the potential to be hers one day (decorated with golden edible glitter, of course).

Undyne's face lit up when she saw it, and she took so many pictures that she almost forgot to blow out the candles. And when it came time to serve it, she and all the other guests agreed that this cake was worth all the time Papyrus and Mettaton had spent making it.

(It didn't hurt that the cake ended up giving Papyrus and Undyne the energy for a dance-off, either. Alphys tried to awkwardly explain the nature of her wife's friendship with Papyrus, but one of Undyne's fellow wrestlers assured her that they'd seen sillier incidents from other wrestlers. Mettaton, meanwhile, provided the music.)

Making more cakes in the future was definitely in the cards for Papyrus and Mettaton, especially when it could bring them and their friends even closer together.

**Author's Note:**

> While I don't like to have characters singing Happy Birthday in my stories because that song and I have a bad history, I can't help imagining Sans adding this onto the end:
> 
> And many more, on channel four (like Asgore?)  
> And Mad Mew Mew, on channel two  
> And MTT, on channel three  
> My brother's great, on channel eight  
> And here's Undyne, on channel nine  
> And our pal Frisk, on channel six...  
> (Etc. etc. etc.)


End file.
